Olczyk Can`t Be Kept In Check Off The Ice

August 11, 1985|By Mike Conklin.

Ed Olczyk has learned one thing about being a professional hockey player: You can get to be a pretty good golfer.

Olczyk hasn`t decided whether it`s the similarity between the swings or simply having the opportunity, but he`s beginning to sound more like a candidate for the PGA qualifying school than the youngest Black Hawk.

``Got into the 70s the other day in the Red Cloud tournament,`` he said.

``In the Baseball Cancer Society tournament, I had a tee shot come within 11 inches of winning a Mercedes. My handicap`s finally starting to shrink a little, probably somewhere between 10 and 15. I approach golf like every other sport. I take it serious when I play.``

This is definitely the summer of contentment for Olczyk, who, following an exceptional rookie season in which he scored 26 goals and 35 assists, has found time to bask in the warmth of his achievements.

``I`ve never been away from hockey this long before,`` said Olczyk, who will report to camp with the rest of the Hawks in mid-September. ``Ever since I was 12, I don`t think I ever took more than a month off. I know I have to pace myself because I`ll need the energy during the season, but actually, this is the slowest summer I`ve ever had.``

Slow? Since the Hawks were eliminated in mid-May in the National Hockey League playoffs, Olczyk`s snail`s pace has included six different golf events, a softball tournament in Niagara Falls, trips to Hawaii, Canada, Arizona, Las Vegas and the National Sports Festival in Louisiana, about ``20 to 25 Cub games`` and more visits than he can recall to hockey camps conducted by teammates and coaches.

Olczyk, who doesn`t turn 19 until Friday, is a manchild in the promised land as the first home-grown product to star for the Hawks. In Chicago pro sports, few athletes have enjoyed that special status. Among the most prominent have been George Connor for the Bears, Ronnie Lester and Johnny Kerr for the Bulls, and Phil Cavarretta, Steve Trout and Scott Sanderson for the Cubs.

Accordingly, the demand for Olczyk`s time has been as great as it has been varied. Goodwill appearances have ranged from the 17th annual Orland Days Parade to K mart grand openings to an honored ringside chair at a karate-kick boxing championship.

``If I asked Ed to make an appearance every time somebody wanted him, he`d get worked to death,`` said Susan Ocasek, who coordinates off-the-ice scheduling for the Hawks. ``He loves it, though. He never refuses an autograph. He comes into the office, reads all of his fan mail and acts like he can`t believe people are actually writing to him.``

The only noticeable result of this celebrity is the shiny, new black Corvette with the USA XII license plates that he uses to zip around town. And because Ed still prefers to live with his parents (``for a long time,`` he adds), the Olczyk home in Palos Heights has to be the only residence in Chicagoland that has a teenager`s phone with an unlisted number.

``I know it sounds corny, but I`m proud to be an American, and I`m proud to be a Chicagoan,`` he said. ``I love doing all these things, and in some ways, I thought there`d be even more. I honestly feel I have a special responsibility as a local athlete to do what I can for hockey. I think I`ll be able to tell if people start abusing me.``

Olczyk says his extensive amateur career probably has made it easier not to slip from the tightrope while balancing the roles of professional sports star and neighborhood teenager who`s grown an inch this summer.

``My best friends have almost always been in hockey like me and they can relate,`` he said. ``I suppose there are some things I`ve missed out on growing up and my dad still thinks I could make it in baseball.``

At an age when most kids are taking their first driver`s education classes, Olczyk was living on his own in Canada and playing Junior hockey. He traveled extensively to earn a spot on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team at 17, and two summers ago he was competing in the National Sports Festival.

``You start to think it`s great Ed hasn`t forgotten all the people who helped him along the way, then you remember that it really wasn`t that long ago,`` said Hawk assistant coach Cliff Koroll, who played for Chicago from 1969 to 1980. ``When he came to my camp, the kids just lit up when I told them.

``Some of them weren`t even born when I was playing and don`t remember me as a player, but they definitely relate to Ed,`` added Koroll. ``They recognize him as one of their own. In him, they see proof that a local player can make it in the NHL. The funny thing is that it really wasn`t that long ago that he was attending the same kind of camps.``

In fact, Olczyk isn`t through attending camps. Later this month, he`ll attend a special skating school in Canada for NHL players seeking to improve their agility on ice.

``It should be a good thing for me because I really haven`t done any serious work on ice this summer,`` said Olczyk. ``Mostly, it`s just been light workouts.

``Right now, I can`t wait for the season to start. Last year, I think a lot of Black Hawk fans were behind me because I was from Chicago. This year, I want them to think of me as a good player.``